A game of two halves

Wednesday, 20 May 2009, 16:30 GMT

Leg 7 has been a game of two halves. First, there was the robust defending just outside the penalty (ice) box. No serious fouls, no yellow cards. Now, the pace quickens as the clock winds down to full time in Galway. Expect plenty of goal-bound action.

Fernando Echavarri’s Eleven were first to make good their escape from hazard county at the south-east corner of the exclusion zone and went in search of the warmer waters of the Gulf Stream. Ericsson 4 followed, is now tied for the lead, and threatening.

For the navigators, the equation is simple: warm water minus the Labrador Current equals more breeze. It also brings sunnier dispositions on board.

While boat speeds have generally been running hot and cold, Telefonica Black has been revelling in the tight reaching conditions of the past few days. The Black boat boxed clever around the ice box, stayed out of the quarrel over scoring gate points, and headed south.

But the thought of the volume being turned up to 30 knots in the next few days, is not music to the ears of navigator Roger Nilson.

As the passage to Ireland begins in earnest, and a there is a gradual wind shift from south-east to south-west, Telefonica Black will come under pressure. Not least from Ericsson 4 and Telefonica Blue, third passed the zone and third in the order. In an audio interview with Amanda Blackley, Nilson admitted as much.

“We focused on getting south of the four boats that were chasing each other to the scoring gate and put our efforts in the overall leg result,” he said. “By going south we managed to squeeze far enough east so that when those boats tacked they were behind us.

"However, the conditions coming up are not so favourable for us. Now the wind is going more to the south-west and a big low is coming across north of Newfoundland going east and tomorrow we expect up to 30-35 knots and a quick passage to Ireland.

"We are not so good when we have 30 knots downwind, so we will have the bigger rudders and stack the boat towards the back, we have a new A7, so we hope to perform well. We’ve done well pushing upwind, now when we get running conditions we just have to push hard to stay ahead. We will pray to the gods.”

Delta Lloyd, like Telefonica Black, played the long game rather than go for the quick fix of scoring gate points. "We let the scoring gate be, in order to aim for the long term strategy and to get back to the fleet,” Delta Lloyd Media Crew Member Sander Pluijm, wrote. “Everywhere around our boat we see the rest of the fleet. After four days of racing we are back on track and in the middle of the pack.

“Like every other boat, we were looking for the warm Gulf Stream yesterday. When finally after two tacks we found it, the water temperature went from 12 to 17 degrees in a few miles. The difference between three layers of fleece and thermals or just a T-shirt. So the boys were happy that the sun finally brought some warmth on deck. But most important of all, our tactics worked.”

As for Delta Lloyd (formerly ABN AMRO ONE, the first generation Volvo Open 70), navigator Wouter Verbraak said it was one extreme to the other: “Our boat that is not the newest in the fleet. We will push hard when we can but the first goal is to get to Galway in one piece. Sailing in these conditions is tricky. With the Gulf Stream and the cold Labrador Current we go from one extreme to the other.

"One minute it’s T-shirts and shorts and loving life in the 17-degree waters of the Gulf Stream then in literally minutes we enter a cold eddy and the water temperature plummets to three-four degrees. It’s hats on and you’re freezing again. Variable, but pleasant."

Telefonica Blue, holding third place, 10 miles behind the sistership, is warming to her task of hounding the leaders, according to skipper Bouwe Bekking. The Blue boat has also taken a break from covering the tracks of PUMA and vice versa. "We have experienced tremendous changes in wind speed and wind direction in the last 24 hours,” he said. “The trick seems to be to find the warmest spell of water – the warmer the water, the better the air is, mixing on the surface.

"Today we saw Delta Lloyd tacking only 1.5 miles to weather of us, but half an hour later she gained about three miles more to windward, just having a tad more pressure than us. We bit the bullet and tacked off, leaving PUMA – with whom we have been so close for a long time – alone.

"The next four days will be tough for us, 25 -30 knots on the bum, let's see how much we have improved, with our new trim and the new sails.”

The fog may be starting to clear but Guy Salter was still coming over all misty-eyed on Ericsson 4. He found time to leaf through the annals of his mind and reminisce on transatlantic crossings past.

"The transatlantic leg or race is a classic – it’s the more accessible playground for all those people wishing to experience Southern Ocean style conditions – the breeze, the cold and the exhilarating rides ... all with the knowledge of some kind of assistance within a reasonably short distance (not several thousand miles like the Southern Ocean).

"A few of us were talking of a transatlantic race we sailed in some years ago and how different this trip has been so far. Then it was upwind in 30+ knots and between us we reeled off a catalogue of carnage – drilling and tapping the main tracks back on masts, electrical fires, canard problems, huge leaks , interiors falling apart and countless rope and sail damages – but we all look back on those hard times fondly and usually with a smile.”

As for the here and now, it’s blue skies, sunshine, a dry deck, sunglasses and peppered beef jerky as they chew over their chances on this leg. “Dave Endean has brought along some of the finest jerky any of us have tasted – from the normal to the peppered,” he reports. “My favourite is the hot and spicy variety. It’s like a really good Thai beef salad.

"Although delicious, the jerky has been hard to chew and I can imagine that we all have a very square jaw line now. The muscles on each side of our faces ache from chewing – as opposed to laughing.”

The mood is not so jovial on Ericsson 3. The Nordics came off second best in an encounter with a whale a couple of days ago and sustained considerable damage to a daggerboard and the keel fin. The boat’s progress has been badly hindered as a result.

By the 16:00 GMT Position Report, they were in last place on the leaderboard, 94 miles behind Telefonica Black and Ericsson 4. Delta Lloyd was +14, PUMA (+19) and Green Dragon (+33).

Ericsson 3 took the precaution of carrying a spare daggerboard for this leg which has been duly fitted. However, Media Crew Member Gustav Morin reports that the damage to the keel is costly and the bruising to morale palpable.

"We can't let go of the thought that we were in the lead and then, suddenly, we hit a whale and after that everything has been going bad,” he said. “We lost three positions to the scoring gate and after that we have lost even more. Like every one of the front runners to the gate, we have lost a lot to the boats which were at the back of the fleet before the gate. They didn't bother about racing for the gate, but were heading straight for goal.

"Yesterday, we hoisted the port daggerboard and had a good look and found that it was pretty badly damaged. For sure that had slowed us down a lot. We are going better now, but we had already lost a lot and we still have some damage in the front of the bulb.

"But we are never giving up so do not count us out. Like Magnus Olsson (Ericsson 3 skipper) always keep saying: ‘Everything can happen in sailing and hockey’.”

Fellow sports fan, Rick Deppe, is letting his imagination run wild with thoughts of Usain Bolt, a member of the PUMA family who hot-footed it to the Boston stopover in anticipation of il mostro’s arrival. Unfortunately, Ken Read and his men were late in. By the time they arrived, Bolt had bolted.

Nonetheless, Deppe has been crunching the numbers and come up with the following ... “Bolt’s event takes 9.6 seconds, and ours takes 9 months,” he began. “He covers 100 metres in around 9.5 seconds. Currently Il mostro is travelling at 15 knots and at this speed we will cover 100 metres in 12.5 seconds. Not bad.

"Il mostro’s top speed on the race so far was 40 knots. At that speed we would cover 100 metres in around 5 seconds, not bad for an 18-ton sailboat. So by my reckoning and with all practicalities aside, Il mostro would easily be the 100 metres world champion.”

But Deppe was not done yet.

"Now its time to do it in metric and see how Usain does on a marathon. 40,000 nautical miles multiplied by 1.85 equals 74,0000 kilometres, divide this by 135 and you get 548 kilometres per day, divide this by 24 and now we know that our average speed around the world is 22.8kmh.

"We already established that Usain competes at a remarkable 37.8kmh so if he could run on water (some say he can) and keep it going round the clock, he would make the 70,0000 kilometres around the world in around 81 days and at this speed he would easily be winning the Volvo Ocean Race right now.”

I feel a match race coming on.

Read Cameron Kelleher's blog at Funny Peculiar English.

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• Happy in our little home, but missing the 'jamon'! - Bouwe Bekking
• A happy boat is a fast boat, says Wouter Verbraak
• Pushing hard to stay ahead - Telefonica Black's Roger Nilson...

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